behavior
Syllables: be·ha·viorUK/bɪˈheɪ.vjə//bɪˈheɪ.vjəɹ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
behavior noun: human conduct relative to social norms.
Noun
behavior (usually uncountable, plural behaviors)
- Human conduct relative to social norms.
- Teachers will probably be on their best behaviour for your visit – but don't be upset if they don't even notice you; they've got enough going on.2014 September 23, A teacher, “Choosing a primary school: a teacher's guide for parents”, in The Guardian
- An inappropriate or forbidden action.
- When a patient has a behavior, document it in their records.
- The way or manner a living creature behaves or acts generally.
- A state of probation about one's conduct.
- He was on his best behavior when her family visited.
- An observable response produced by an organism.
- The way a device or system operates.
behavior meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
behavior in Hindi
- way matter or systems behave
- आचरण ācraṇ
- way an animal or human behaves or acts
- बर्ताव bartāv, व्यवहार vyavhār, आचरण ācraṇ, सलूक salūk, सुलूक sulūk, रवैया ravaiyā
behavior in Tamil
- நடத்தை, ஒழுக்கம், நடைமுறை
behavior in Urdu
- way an animal or human behaves or acts
- سُلُوک sulūk, رَوَیَّہ ravayya
behavior in Bengali
- way matter or systems behave
- আচরণ acoron
- way an animal or human behaves or acts
- আচরণ acoron, সুলুক śuluk
More languagesFewer languages
- behavior in Telugu
- ప్రవర్తన pravartana, నడత naḍata
- behavior in Malayalam
- സ്വഭാവം svabhāvaṁ, പെരുമാറ്റം perumāṟṟaṁ
- behavior in Kannada
- ನಡೆ naḍe
- behavior in Gujarati
- આચરણ ācaraṇ
- behavior in Sanskrit
- नीति nīti
- behavior in Sinhala
- හැසිරීම hæsirīma
- behavior in Assamese
- ব্যৱহাৰ byowohar, আচৰণ asoron
- behavior in Pashto
- چلند čaland, سلوک soluk
- behavior in Tagalog
- ugali
- behavior in Arabic
- سُلُوك sulūk, تَصَرُّف taṣarruf
- behavior in Malay
- perilaku
- behavior in Indonesian
- tingkah laku, perilaku, sifat, kebiasaan
- behavior in Thai
- พฤติกรรม prʉ́t-dtì-gam, จริต jà-rìt, กิริยา gì-rí-yaa, ประพฤติ bprà-prʉ́t
- behavior in Vietnamese
- hành vi
- behavior in Myanmar
- အပြုအမူ a.pru.a.mu, အချိုး a.hkyui:
Examples of behavior in a sentence
- His behavior was unusual in that it was considered childish for a man of his age.
- Sentenced to five years, he could be out in three with good behavior.
- The behavior matched one or more rules and was rejected by an edit filter.
Synonyms of behavior
Forms of behavior
| plural | behaviors |
|---|---|
| alternative UK | behaviour |
| alternative form (obsolete) | behavoure |
| alternative form (obsolete) | behavier |
| alternative form (obsolete) | behavor |
| alternative form (obsolete) | behavour |
Origin of behavior
From Middle English behavoure, behaver, from behaven (modern behave), morphologically equivalent to behave + -ior. The suffix was adopted in imitation of havour (modern haviour, havior), an etymologically unrelated word that was corrupted from Anglo‐Norman Anglo-Norman aveir and Old French Old French avoir (“property, wealth”) through false association with the native English verb have. The French term derives ultimately from Latin Latin habēre (“to have, hold”). Compare Scots havings (“behavior”), from have (“to behave”). Replaced Old English ġebǣru.
Words formed from behavior
- behavioral
- behavioralism
- behavioralist
- behavioral science
- behaviorceutical
- behavioreme
- behaviorism
- behaviorist
- behavioristic
- behaviormetric
- behaviormetrics
- behavior pattern
- behaviorwise
- body-focused repetitive behavior disorder
- dialectical behavior therapy
- disordered money behavior
- eigenbehavior
- health behavior
- human behavior
- ideal-seeking behavior
- macrobehavior
- misbehavior
- multibehavior
- neurobehavior
- photobehavior
- routine response behavior
Phrases with behavior
Words that rhyme with behavior
Questions about behavior
- What does behavior mean?
- Behavior means human conduct relative to social norms.
- What is behavior in Hindi?
- Behavior in Hindi is आचरण (ācraṇ), बर्ताव (bartāv), व्यवहार (vyavhār). See Behavior meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is behavior?
- Behavior is a noun.
- How do you pronounce behavior?
- Behavior is pronounced /bɪˈheɪ.vjə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of behavior?
- The plural of behavior is behaviors.
Words near behavior in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: behavior (page history and authors); behavior (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ನಡೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-behavior.wav, en-us-behavior.ogg.
Cite this entry: “behavior.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/behavior. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.